Interim Cafe

Interim Cafe: Looking for someplace new in downtown Santa Monica, Yelp led me here. I can only assume that vegans in Santa Monica don't know what they're missing. I have had exquisite vegan food and this was no more than passable. Non-vegan chicken madras was pretty good, not intense enough, but on brown rice so that's extra points. The tamale with pico de gallo and avacado slices was pretty good, and had a side salad that was pretty good, with three small strawberry slices, some coconut shreds, and a few seeds. The fake-chicken bbq sandwich wasn't bbq but mustard (though nice and tangy), but the faux chicken was not a good consistency and so bland. Arnold Palmer was average. Cherry vanilla smoothie was icy, with an ok flavor but not enough flavor. In all, it was an ok meal, but nothing to write home about. The oat cookie was dry and tasted weak/healthy...they need to add raisins/dates/almond flour. Overall, I'd rather go to the Panera across the street any day and I wouldn't go to a Panera with so many better options for food in Santa Monica. So I'm mystified by the 4.5 out of 5 stars on Yelp for this area and can only assume that Santa Monica doesn't have any good vegan food. I wish I'd gone with my second choice and tried Umami burger even though I had a burger for dinner yesterday.